3.5 stars

I chose to read this ARC because I had read some wonderful Christian historical romance books and really enjoyed them. So I wanted to check out a Christian romance fantasy book. I also really enjoy fairytale retellings, and this is a Little Mermaid retelling that also incorporates Atlantis. 

I really had mixed emotions with this novel. On the one hand, I really liked the story, characters, and romance, but on the other, it had a lot of technical writing problems. 

Overall, the story concept was rather intriguing. I loved the twists of The Little Mermaid in this retelling. I also loved the general messages in this book. It’s pretty based, so if you don’t lean conservative in some of your viewpoints, then you probably won’t like it. But I really appreciated it since it aligns with my personal view on things.

It is also pretty strong on the faith element, which I enjoyed. I don’t consider myself a Christian, but I am spiritual and enjoy the faith undertones here and there because I agree with the messages portrayed. If you don’t align with many Christian viewpoints, you may find this book a bit preachy, but since I do, I liked it and didn’t find it preachy at all. But I could see how others would. I’m not familiar with the bible, but I feel like there were references to it, but it was lost on me.  

The romance is pure and sweet. It is a clean romance – no spice and just a couple of kissing scenes. I prefer clean romance, so I was happy with the love story aspects of it. I really enjoyed the banter and chemistry between Aria and Bastian. There is also very mild language, which I appreciated. If you enjoy these romance tropes, then you’ll like this one: enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, bodyguard romance, slow burn romance, and a love triangle.

The world-building was done pretty well with rich descriptions, but I would’ve liked to have gone deeper. I wanted a lot more details and really wanted to be immersed in this world. I wanted to know more about the Merworld as well as Atlantea. I felt like we just skimmed the surface of both, and I wanted more information. We also didn’t get much backstory about the prophecies they spoke about, or the history of Aria’s mother, her father, and just how her parents came together. I would’ve loved more of their backstory. 

For the most part, I liked Aria as our main protagonist. She really reminded me of Ariel. She is young, naive, and adventurous. But of course, she’s also strong-willed, stubborn, reckless, and selfish. She is only concerned for her own well-being at the start, and she just wants her freedom. She feels trapped in the underwater palace and in her role as a princess, heir to the throne. She also feels like a prisoner of her father, and she just wants to live her life on her own terms. She wants to make choices for herself and make her own way in life. So she becomes extremely rebellious, sneaking out of the palace all the time, lying, and making poor choices. In the beginning, she doesn’t think about her actions and how they affect others. But we do see a nice redemption arc and character development as we move through the story. By the end, she has seen “the error of her ways.” We see her grow and mature more and think about her choices and how they affect others, especially her loved ones.

I really liked Bastian, one of Aria’s love interests and her personal bodyguard. He seemed like the ideal man and always gave her a lot of wisdom. He was honorable, intelligent, clever, and kind. He was always there for her and kept forgiving Aria when she would lie and betray him. He reminded me of Michael in Francine River’s Redeeming Love. Bastian was extremely loyal to Aria and her father. We see how he is always there for Aria, even when she’s being a brat and constantly making poor decisions. He’s very patient with her and does everything he can to protect her.

However, there were a lot of plot holes, some scenes didn’t make sense, some time jumps were confusing, some transitions between scenes were poorly written, some dialogue was poorly written, and some reactions to things that were happening didn’t make sense to me. Again, I loved the concept of this story, but it was underdeveloped and needed more polishing and refinement. The beginning was intriguing, but then it really slowed down in the middle, and then in the last quarter of the story, it picked up again. I wish it were more consistent in the storytelling throughout the entire novel. 

I also wished there was more action. There were many scenes where not much was happening. I also wanted to see more of the Merworld and Atlantis. I wish more action scenes happened in the cities. I also wanted to see more magic and creatures or monsters. It did feel like a fantasy novel, but it really lacked some typical fantasy elements that I like to see in these types of stories. Also, the ending was decent, but it was still a bit lackluster and anticlimactic for me. I wish it were bigger, more suspenseful, and had more action. But it was a satisfying ending. 

With all the faults it had, though, I really enjoyed the story, the characters, and the romance and chemistry between the two main protagonists. If this is the start of a series, I would absolutely continue and pick up book two. I’d love to see where the story goes next, and hopefully, with more time and experience, the technical writing problems will improve and become more polished. If you enjoy Christian romance fantasy stories and fairytale retellings, I would recommend this book.